Slaughterhouse Five Critical Analysis

Slaughterhouse-Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is an anti-war book about the firebombing of Dresden, which the author witnessed in World War II. In the book, the reader is introduced with the main character Billy Pilgrim, who seems to have come "unstuck in time," rendering him the ability to travel or relive the past, present, and future (Vonnegut). Billy learns later on, from an alien race named the Tralfamadorians, that all time exists simultaneously. Vonnegut begins the book, however, with anecdotes from when he was just starting to write the book and how writing it led him to develop new ideas on war. The reader then discovers, through this first chapter, how Vonnegut 's ideas are purposely mirrored in the structure and content of the book

In fact, by putting himself in the book multiple times throughout the story and referring to himself in first person he seems to remind the reader and even himself that he is writing this for himself as a form of coping with the trauma of the bombing of Dresden. For Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse-Five can be seen as a therapeutic process that allows him to uncover and deal with his trauma" (Vees-Gulani, par.3) in which he also develops his ideas and attitude towards war. One can interpret that before writing this book, Vonnegut felt that he had never left the bombing of Dresden and, in fact, relived it continuously. Perhaps Vonnegut felt he could not forget about it since it would be wrong, as he criticizes, making him become apathetic towards the negative ordeals in life. Slaughterhouse-Five is very much an anti-war book in which Vonnegut explains that one should not forget the negative ordeals one faces in life, but fight them so that one can evoke change and prevent it from happening

Vonnegut gives the reader clear hints on what Slaughterhouse-Five is truly all about, that being, a response or criticism of war and how people have become apathetic towards it, which consequently hinders our ability to create change. By delivering this message, Vonnegut feels he can make changes himself and so Slaughterhouse-Five serves to him as a self-treatment, while at the same time revealing the reason why change depends on everyone; nobody can make change until they accept the possibility for change. Vonnegut organizes his book, although it seems anything but, with his main character Billy, his connections and experiences in World War II, and his message for which he means to provide the reader with, in the ways that he does, so that everything in his book is represented as it should be, making things such as war and the apathetic response to it even more so of an appalling image. Slaughterhouse-Five can then be portrayed as by the reader, as a book with nonsensical content, ideas, actions, attitudes, and structures for which the author is profoundly